


Cool for the Summer

by speakpirate



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Pre-Series, vandermarin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 10:00:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speakpirate/pseuds/speakpirate
Summary: Hanna has a plan for the summer. She didn't count on Mona trying to help.“What are you doing here?” Hanna asks.“Helping you with your project,” Mona explains, as if it’s obvious. She also takes the open door as an invitation to saunter in. Hanna wonders how Mona even knows where she lives.“You’re looking for a boyfriend, right?”





	Cool for the Summer

**Author's Note:**

> _Happy Pride Month! I'm celebrating by trying to transform some half-done pieces into finished femslash. This piece was originally another false start on my Hanna/Emily summer before Ali goes missing fic. It came from the same idea - Hanna hanging out at the lake reading magazines, noticing things about Emison that she doesn't totally realize are clues. But then Mona showed up, and she's so magic that the whole thing instantly took a turn for the Vandermarin._

Hanna has a plan for the summer. Of course it starts with losing twenty pounds. Just like the last five summers, at least. 

But this summer is going to be different. Even if she doesn’t lose weight, she wants to move up, change her position in the group. She wants to stop being Ali’s hedge against boredom, like an accessory she carries around just in case there’s nothing else to do, she can always start making fun of Hefty Hanna.

Hanna’s been thinking. Emily is the favorite right now, she’s been at the top of the food chain for months, ever since Halloween. Hanna thinks she knows why, too. Because Alison found out Emily was getting all sexy in the sheets with Ben. Now she and Ali are all, like, worldly together, Hanna figures. That’s why they’re always whispering and passing notes the others don’t get to see. Why they disappear together, sometimes for hours, probably comparing notes or sex tips or something. 

So it’s super clear what Hanna needs to do. She needs to get a boyfriend. She doesn’t even have to go all the way, but she’ll act like she’s maybe thinking about it, and then she’ll get to be in the special club, too.

She’s been reading every magazine article she can find. They all say pretty much the same thing. Remember things he’s interested in. Laugh at his jokes. Touch his arm so he feels like you’re listening. Hanna memorizes these tips obediently, but they all have holes in them. How do you know what a guy is interested in? What if he doesn’t make jokes? What if you go to touch his arm and he yells at you to get your fat paws off of him?

“What’s Ben interested in?” she asks Emily, one day at the beach. Alison is off flirting with the muscle bound lifeguard, so she has Emily to herself, even if she does seem a little distracted.

“Um, swimming,” Emily says. “And NASCAR.” She makes a face. That’s breaking the rule of being interested in what the guy is interested in, Hanna notes. Although the both like swimming a lot, so maybe that makes up for it. 

Although, now that she thinks about it, she’s never seen Emily laugh at something Ben’s said. She’s never seen her touch his arm, either. Mostly when they’re out together, he has an arm draped around her shoulder, and she just stands there like it’s part of her outfit or something. 

“How did you get him to like you?” Hanna asks.

Emily doesn’t look at her, she’s staring at her toes, which are tracing patterns in the sand.

“I don’t know,” she says. “He came up to me after practice one day, and he invited me to a pool party at his house. Ali said I should go, so I did.”

“What else?” Hanna asks. 

“Nothing,” Emily says. “The party was okay, and then he asked me to the movies. He thought it was cool I wanted to see Saw VI and now he’s my boyfriend.”

Hanna frowns. Emily is no help. She might need to rethink her strategy.

She makes a list of possible guys. She writes down Mike Montgomery, then crosses his name off immediately. Alison was already really clear about him being too young, even if he is really nice. And she doesn’t want to be on the outs with Aria. Guy who works at ice cream shop, she writes down. Then makes a note - find out his name. 

“Jared,” a voice says from over her right shoulder. It’s Mona Vanderwaal, appearing out of nowhere like she always does. 

Mona sits down. She’s wearing a black one piece suit, and her hair is in one long braid instead of pigtails. She still has her tragically unhip glasses and her smile is all braces, which is good. Mona is so weird looking, she makes Hanna feel a little better about herself. Like, she might be a hippo, but at least she’s a hippo with naturally straight teeth and 20/20 vision. It’s kind of a mean thought to have, but that’s totally the Alison way to think about stuff. It’s important to have friends that are less hot than you are, and that basically limits Hanna’s options to either Mona or a talking gargoyle. 

“His name’s Jared,” Mona says, carrying on a conversation that Hanna hasn’t totally agreed to participate in. “And I noticed he _did_ give you two extra cherries on your sundae last week.”

“You were there?” Hanna asks, surprised. She doesn’t like to let people see her eating junk food.

“You didn’t see me,” Mona says, wrinkling her nose in a way that might be kind of cute if it didn’t make her huge glasses almost slide off her face. “Sometimes I can be like, nearly invisible.” She says it matter-of-factly, like it’s not even a big deal. “But I definitely noticed you and those silver peep toe sandals. Totes adorbs.”

“Thanks,” Hanna says, uncertainly. “I thought they made me toes look funny.” Like pudgy grapes. 

“No way,” Mona assures her. “They looked so delicate with that pale pink polish.” She pats Hanna’s leg, as if they’re BFFs or something. “So what’s the what? Do you like Jared?”

”I dunno,” Hanna admits. “It’s stupid. I just thought maybe he could help me with a project I’m working on.”

Mona’s eyes light up. “A project?”

“I can’t talk about it now,” Hanna says, shifting uncomfortably in her lounge chair. 

Alison and Emily have just reappeared at the edge of the woods. Ali’s presence sends ripples of activity into motion. Spencer is coming back from where she’d been comparing summer reading lists with Andrew Campbell near the concession stand. Aria is abandoning an elaborate sand castle project she was working on with a bunch of artsy kids.

Hanna bites her lip nervously. “Maybe you should -” 

But before she has a chance to finish her sentence, Mona has already vanished.

\--------------------------------------

She reappears two days later, on Hanna’s doorstep.

It’s been raining all morning, and Ali was apparently out late at a college party last night, so she’s probably going to be asleep for hours yet.

“What are you doing here?” Hanna asks.

“Helping you with your project,” Mona explains, as if it’s obvious. She also takes the open door as an invitation to saunter in. Hanna wonders how Mona even knows where she lives.

“You’re looking for a boyfriend, right?” 

Hanna’s too stunned to speak. She nods.

“Okay,” Mona says. “Let’s make a list.”

She pulls out a flowery notebook and pen. 

“Noel.”

“Noel Kahn? No way.” Aria likes him. And he’s way out of her league. 

Mona crosses his name off with a flourish.

“A college guy. Someone from Hollis, maybe?”

“My mom would freak.”

“Sean Ackard.”

Hanna considers it. Sean has always been really nice to her. And he’s cute.

“You don’t think he’s too popular?”

Mona smiles. “There’s no such thing.”

“I thought he was going out with Bridget Wu.”

“Not anymore. Not as of last Tuesday. She got busted breaking into the communion wine.”

_“Seriously?”_

“Sean it is,” Mona declares, like it’s decided.

\-----------------------------

A week goes by, and nothing happens.

She trails along behind Alison and the other girls.

To the beach. 

To the mall. 

To the movies.

Spencer and Alison are maybe fighting, so Hanna’s status is marginally improved.

They’re back at the beach again when Hanna’s cell rings.

“Say it’s your Mom,” Mona’s voice instructs her when she answers.

“What?”

“Meet me by the giant oak tree in the woods. Now.”

“Who was that?” Alison asks.

“My mom,” Hanna tells her. “I have to go.”

Alison waves lazily as Hanna grabs her bag.

Ten minutes later, she’s wishing she had better shoes than her flip flops for tromping through the forest. 

She sees the oak tree up ahead, but no sign of Mona.

Then someone shoves her from behind. Hard.

She screams and falls, twisting her ankle as her foot gets caught in the roots.

“Owwww,” she exclaims. She looks around for whoever pushed her, but there’s no sign of anyone. 

She tries to pull herself up using a low hanging branch, but it snaps off in her hand and she lands flat on her back. 

That’s when Sean Ackard, hiking in his beige boy scout uniform, finds her.

\---------------------------------------

“What happened then?” Aria asks, her eyes wide.

“Well, my ankle was the size of Jupiter and there’s no cell reception out there, so he tore the sleeves off his shirt to bind it up and then he basically carried me out of there.” 

“What were you doing in the woods?” Leave it to Spencer to want to play detective about the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to Hanna in her whole entire life. “I thought you were going home.”

“I was taking a short cut.”

“In the opposite direction?” Emily asks.

“Leave her alone,” Alison orders. She gives Hanna an appraising look, tinged with surprise and maybe even approval. As if there might be more to Hanna than she expected.

\--------------------------------------

Hanna is in bed, her ankle propped up on pillows, when Mona’s face suddenly appears outside her window. Her second floor window.

“What are you doing here?” Hanna whispers, limping over to open it.

“Has he texted yet?” Mona asks. “To check up on you?”

“Yes,” Hanna admits. “Like ten seconds ago.”

Mona does a goofy little happy dance, and Hanna can’t help grinning a little herself.

“I can’t believe you pushed me!”

“What are you talking about?” Mona asks, feigning innocence. “I saw him out there and thought you could bump into him. That’s all.”

Hanna frowns. Maybe it was a stray tree branch or a raccoon or something. Maybe she just lost her balance.

Mona climbs in through the window and sits cross legged on Hanna’s bed.

“So,” she says, brightly. “What are we going to say to him?”

She’s already decided they’re a we.

\----------------------------------------------------

Hanna can’t believe it, but it seems like her plan is totally working.

She has a date tonight. 

A _third_ date.

Granted, the first two dates weren’t exactly the stuff that dreams are made of. The first one, she helped him run bingo night for all the old people at his church. And last weekend she went with him while he delivered Meals on Wheels.

“What’s next?” Alison snarks. “A hot night of helping little old ladies cross the street?”

What’s next, Hanna hopes, is kissing.

Kissing would take them officially out of the just friends stage.

The problem is, she’s not totally sure how to do it.

The sum total of her experience so far is a single two second smooch with Mike Montgomery that ended when Alison swooped in and freaked.

She tries to talk to Emily about it, but she doesn’t have much to say.

Apparently Ben just kind of lunged at her lips.

She described the feeling of his tongue as kind of slimy.

It doesn’t exactly set Hanna’s mind at ease.

What if her tongue is slimy? 

What if she has dragon breath?

What if she accidentally bites him?

She’s so nervous about it that she totally spaces as they wander around the church carnival, not hearing half of what he’s telling her about the soundtrack of _Jesus Christ, Superstar._

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“Fine!” 

She’s not fine. She forgot all about being interested in what he’s interested in.

“I just need to use the little girls room.”

She hurries across the square and heads down to the church basement.

She second she closes the bathroom door, Mona pops out.

Hanna’s scream is cut off by Mona putting a hand over her mouth. She’s surprisingly strong.

“What are you _doing_ here?” Hanna asks, clutching her chest. “You scared me to death!”

“The only thing that’s dying is your budding romance,” Mona says, rolling her eyes. “What’s going on out there?”

“Nothing,” Hanna lies. 

“Oh,” Mona says. “I see.”

“See what?”

Mona doesn’t answer in words.

She takes off her glasses and slides them into a pocket of her sweater.

Then she kisses Hanna full on the mouth.

“Mmmph,” Hanna says, around Mona’s lips, which are actually super soft.

“Shhhhh,” Mona whispers, as she slides her tongue into Hanna’s mouth.

It’s not slimy at all. It tastes vaguely like cotton candy and Hanna feels like an electric charge is surging through her whole body. 

They startle apart at the sound of a knock on the bathroom door.

“Hanna?” Sean’s voice seems super loud and male all of a sudden. “Are you okay in there?”

“Yes,” Hanna replies, her voice a little squeaky. “I’ll be right out.”

Mona takes it upon herself to fix Hanna’s lipstick and reign in a few rogue strands of her hair.

Then she pats Hanna on the arm, totally unembarrassed. “Get it, girl!”

Hanna doesn’t exactly succeed in getting it.

She’s still kind of distracted. 

Now she has a really clear picture of what kissing is like.

Maybe too clear.

She keeps imagining what Sean’s mouth might taste like. 

Replaying how Mona sucked on her bottom lip a little.

At the end of the night, Sean walks her to her door and shakes her hand.

After all that!

Hanna leans in to try and kiss him, but he twists his neck so her lips graze his cheek.

Total humiliation.

She stomps up to her bedroom and finds Mona already waiting for her. She’s twisting the bedspread nervously between her fingers.

“I’m sorry,” Mona says. “Sometimes I go a little overboard. I didn’t mean to make things weird.”

“S’okay. You did kind of go above and beyond.”

Mona takes Hanna’s hand and stares at her super intently. 

“It’s who I am, Hannakins. I’d do _anything_ for a friend.”


End file.
